The head of the UN maritime agency appealed on Tuesday for help for thousands of seafarers stranded due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as the Middle East war paralyses the vital shipping route.
Around 20,000 seafarers and 2,000 ships have been stranded after shipping was disrupted in the strategic strait following US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February, which triggered the war, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Around one-fifth of the world’s crude and liquefied natural gas normally passes through the strait.
IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said at a maritime conference in Singapore on Tuesday that "stranded sailors were suffering from stress and fatigue”.
“We need to know everything that they’re going through,” he added.
Dominguez asked shipping companies to provide remote support to the sailors in some specific significant areas, like mental health.
He said that some countries have established ‘round-the-clock’ helplines for the seafarers, while others have been providing them with food. But the more could be done on a personal level is proactively reaching out to sailors to listen to them so that they feel less isolated.
Shipping remained curtailed in the strait as the United States and Iran both warned they were ready for war, while the clock ticked down on a ceasefire set to expire on Wednesday, according to the Washington time.
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